Modesty Studios

Happy All Saints Day! 10 days before my 31st birthday. I'm finally old enough to drink ten years later. No progress on costumes or crafts really. Except I got more supplies. I'm in the stock pile stage of stuffing animals. Joann's had a sale on fluffy plush which I'm going to use for stuffed animals. I also ordered some proper minky for ponies. The fluffy plush would work but minky has much shorter pile length than the fluff I'm currently using. I'm also learning how to hand embroider. It's a slow process so...it goes well. However, there is much to update about digital art. I updated 7 Eldest after several months of hiatus. I've also been drawing characters for a tabletop game I'm part of. Here's some of the party portraits I made. I'm playing as Angelo. Old Angelo. Poor guy. I've had this character for only 17 years and he's aged to 50 something. He was a baby first! D: The GM is also making his own game s...

Has it really been a month since I last updated? Guess so. Well things progress at a snail's pace with the Dalish Armor. FINALLY got a stretchy vinyl that will cover the bodice. One of these days I'll get back to it. In the meantime, I've been keeping busy with sewing stuffed animals. I've sewn Orange Dinosaur about 3 times now. This was actually the first try. Still looks better than some of the other attempts. I've also sewn 2 ponies but they both turned out crap so I unstuffed them and will start again.  Other than that I'm replaying Inquisition and will probably get some DLC for it. I've also opened up digital art commissions again just for fun.  Too many hobbies I swear. I just get into moods about certain art forms. With Halloween coming up I've been slowly getting back into costume mode, but because of my weird work hours (namely evenings ON weekends) I won't attend any parties. :( Sadness. But I'll dress up for work becaus...

Boo-boo-be-doop. I have been thinking and rethinking the bodice armor for the Dalish Inquisitor. I may have finally...FINALLY arrived at A solution. Here's what I did. First, I got inspired by the bodice design for Anna's winter dress in Frozen. That design just looked very similar to the design of the armor itself.  (Focus on the neckline really.) So I learned a thing or two. First how to block out a bodice pattern. It's similar but not quite the same as the Frozen dress. My next debacle was figuring out which material to use.  or The vinyl has the right color but sooo wrinkly. :(  So I went with the foam.  SO MANY PINS! The foam was heated shaped and glued. I need to make some adjustments to the seams so like they're not there at all. Then I can cover it with the fabric. :D I also got my airbrush paints ready to go on this one. ^^ Can't wait to use it. But first...have to get the right fabric to cover this. 

So here's how this happened. I'm at work on a slow Saturday night and decided to play around in my test store. (I do tech support and my test store is custom pony based!) I created a new line of items in my store "Fluffy Ponies" and created a product for a plush pony. Which got me into research on how to actually make them and what kind of fabric is used and so on.  So I was neck deep in research about how to make the eyes, the hair, and stumbled on someone's project for a life-size Rainbow Dash. They had a journal listing how they made it. It was amazing. One thing that caught my attention was how she made the Element of harmony... THIS tutorial And then I thought...my god...I've approached this all wrong. Well...not completely wrong...I just got the wrong kind of vinyl when I started. My current vinyl is felt back and very stiff (Which will be great for the hip leaves). But the bodice has a lot of curves...particularly in the breast region. This wou...

news!  I've made some progress on my Dalish Inquistor. The bodice is in progress (pics soon)  So I had a round about way of figuring out how to do this. First, I thought that the vinyl I purchased would be thinner and a bit more flexible. So I went about creating the base of the bodice in craft foam and cover it in the vinyl. But that wasn't quite working out because the vinyl was too thick and stuff. So I took out the craft foam save for the bra cups. Which I placed too high up at first. Then I realize that I'd have to cut and sew the bodice...you know like an actual pattern of a bodice. ...now it fits and looks nice-ish. I'm just glad the belt is so thick. :P So I have some more detail to put on this as well as a way to lace it up in the back. Then I'll work with my new airbrush to get some battle damage!  (IMAGE) Then there's the chain mail which was going to be made out of a grey net mesh. I cut out pieces for a turtleneck shirt and leggings, pinne...

Been awhile since I've updated. You can thank my new job for that! (It doesn't have as much downtime as other jobs I've held.) But I'm happy making money regularly. So many of the costume projects have been on hold since starting work. I seriously get way tired after work and I was dealing with a minor pest problem with pantry beetles. :P So far I've got my "chainmail" fabric pinned to my dress form. Yes...a dress form. SO happy I have one. I still have to sew those pieces together. Just this week I've been switched over to night shift too which I've heard is a bit slower but I'll believe it when I see it. Anyway, so that's been my life for the past couple months. It's been pretty art blocked and writers blocked too. (It's the worst.) I've also got a bad case of side-project-itis. :P I suppose if I start playing Dragon Age again I'll be more inspired to work on my armor. (Well, okay I also had a break-up which has it...

Been doing a bit of an experiment craftwise. It may become a cosplay but we'll see. So here's what's I've done. Supplies: 5mm foam, googly eyes, plaster bandages, wire, cutting tools, and markers. Also a plastic mask. I cut the mouth and traced the plates.  Cut the eye holes to be a bit bigger. The googly eyes to size to the eyes.  Cut the back of the googly eyes and colored the white part of the tape. The thick foam for the eye shape. Used the molding mesh to shape the nose Foam for one plate. I wrapped the mesh with masking tape. More plate work. Mesh with tape wrapped around it. Added the eyebrow plates with more mesh with tape. Shaped the top of the mouth with mesh and tape. The lower jaw was shaped with foam and tape.  Mandibles 5mm foam. I wrapped all the pieces with the plaster bandages.  Here she is all put together....ish. Another view.  I still have plenty to do on the mask but ...

Some cosplayers made a very excellent replica for this prop out of acrylic or plastics or something that had to do with laser cutting. And of course he sells them for about $200 a prop. DEFINITELY WORTH IT if you want to drop the cash and go for high quality. Simply google omni-tool prop and you'll find it pretty easily. But I want to do it MYSELF even though I'm a terrible prop maker...worse than costumes. So I'm going to make a low cost omni-tool and share how YOU can make it too!  Here are the materials I plan on using.  Tools Heat Gun/Blow Dryer Scissors Exacto Knife Box Cutters Glue Gun/Clear glue Masking Tape Scotch Tape Printing Paper Invisible Mounting wire References Supplies Two 2-liter Clear Soda bottle smooth sides Orange, smooth transparent folders/binder dividers Clear Snaps (optional) Orange Sharpie (optional) Orange Enamel paint (optional) Testors Window Tint Spray paint (optional) Orange Vinyl Headlight tints (optional) Here...

http://www.worbla.com/?page_id=4013 OmigoshOmigoshOmigoshOmigosh!!! This is the answer for so many of my prop issues for Tali! It's also a fantastic way to make casting molds. Seriously...if I could make a visor with this!! This would be way easier than thermoplastics. Downside is that it is pricey. I want to make an Omnitool out of it. Also redo the visor. :D

Ha so it's been awhile since I posted progress. And progress had been made! First I'd like to show off my Grey Warden costume that I "debuted" at PAX South. Some of it broke off before I got this picture taken. :P Grey Warden...missing elbow armor. Tali's cosplay has been retired early as I rethink the design. The helmet is the only part that really came out nicely. Well...the metal arm stuff was pretty good too...and pants. Okay but my issue is that it had too many moving parts to put on by myself. I'm rethinking some of my take on the costume design. Like I probably will sew the bandeau onto the shirt directly and make the neck thingy out of fabric instead of foam. I still have plenty of leftover fabric so I can do it. And I'm still unemployed. :P Much sadness. I have the fabric for the Inquisitor but little motivation to work on it. Currently, I have some very serious things to think about for my life in terms of work. We'll see how things ...